Clarke to lift Australia

Michael Clarke looks set to hand Australia a much-needed confidence boost by returning for their first pre-Ashes warm-up game against Somerset next week.

Australia were eliminated from the Champions Trophy on Monday night with a 20-run defeat to Sri Lanka at the Kia Oval. Baggy Green attention now switches to this summer's Ashes series, which begins on July 10 at Trent Bridge.

Clarke has missed all three of Australia's Champions Trophy games due to a back injury he suffered during his team's 4-0 defeat in India, but it looks like the skipper will be fit to play at Taunton in the first of two pre-Ashes warm-up games.

"I would imagine he would be fit for that game," said George Bailey, who stood in for Clarke as skipper for the Champions Trophy. There was a real chance that (Clarke) would have been fit for the Sri Lanka game but with the circumstances of the game, he did not play."

Clarke has had to watch on from the sidelines as his team went through almost the worst possible preparation for the series against England.

Alastair Cook's men drew first blood in the battle between the two old enemies, defeating Australia by 48 runs in their Champions Trophy opener. The Australians were then unable to beat New Zealand - thanks to the weather - and they could not beat Sri Lanka in south London.

"There is probably not a great deal of confidence there," Bailey said, tellingly.

Bailey thinks Australia were fighting a losing battle once they lost to England by 48 runs in their first group game.

"We said at the start that you need to start the competition well in order to get your confidence up so losing to England was a major cock-up," Bailey said.

"The weather then played its part unfortunately, that was a bit of bad luck because we posted a good score (before rain stopped play against New Zealand) but that's part of the game I guess. There's not much more we could have done."